Day 23: GRE Vocabulary, Success Journal, Kick-Boxing, Balance of life

Learning new words has been something I never enjoyed. The idea of having to write a vocabulary, and memorize words always irritated me. However, it seems like my new technique is working. I downloaded magoosh flashcards free application and set a goal of at least to learn 10 words a day. It has been a month now and I am almost 250 words in. Learning these words literally felt effortless. Now every morning alongside with 10 new words I revise 1 chapter of 50 words not to forget what I ve learned earlier. Once things turn into a habit u kind of enjoy them  more. It is a fun activity for me and gives me quick sense of accomplishment when i tick done on my success journal after completing the task.

It has been at least 23 days that I have been reading, training, learning and writing consequently. Recently I have started a success journal and album of dreams which seem to be very helpful. Keeping track of your achievements allow you to have a clearer vision about your goals and to stay focused more.

My simple(most boring) weekday routine is: 1) I wake up, go to work, read on the way to work, 2) train during lunch time  3)finish work and meet with friends 4) come back home, read on the way back home, write and plan the next day, watch you-tube and go to bed. Every now and then I'd add couple of events to attend that would get me out of usual routine. Last night I revised my daily activity once again and realized that there is something I've been postponing for a while now. The thing is that I have always loved training martial arts. I've been a wrestler since childhood and when I look back to my Masters years in London one of the most memorable moments were the ones connected with my Thai boxing training. I asked myself this question of what is preventing me to get back into training? couple of excuses popped up immediately like the gym is too far, i dont have a car, i am too tired after work and etc. But i made a snap decision called the coach, who turns out to be a friend of mine- national champ of kick-boxing and enrolled to his class immediately. My first class starts Thursday this week and I am very excited about it. :) Big shout out to Joe Rogan as his podcast was what inspired me to get my ass off and enjoy the heck out of training. He says: Success in sports leads to success in life and no matter how old, where and in what condition you are you should make time to go to the gym and train your craft every day. His schedule is so busy and if he gets time to train daily bjj or boxing, I sure can do the same also.

Tai Lopez says one should divide his life into four areas: Health, Wealth , Love and Happiness. Once you have the balance of all these 4 areas you will be able to be truly successful. I do agree that in order to have a complete life one should focus on improving all these areas. So here is my monthly plan:

Health wise: I currently train 5x a week 1 hour during lunchtime. +Kickboxing training 3x a week
Wealth: Be more mindful during the work-hours and focus on accomplishments.
Love/Relationships: Build healthier relationships with the right people. Be very careful choosing who you let into your life.
Happiness: Don't forget to rest enjoy life, weekends hangout with friends go out clubbing, travel the world and etc.

Enjoy your day and dont forget to work on your life/goals/dreams. See you soon!

Day 22: Creating the album of my Dreams

Today is an awesome day. I tried this new practice that I learned from Bodo Shefers book "Mani ili azbuka deneg." (seems there is only Russian version of the book available online). The practice is called creating a journal (album) of your dreams.

The idea is that we, human beings, think more with mental images than words. We remember situations with snapshots or pictures in our minds. Therefore, it is very helpful if you create an album of with pictures of the lifestyle you would like to achieve and go through it every day to remind yourself. First thing I did when I got to work this morning was to seek for photos that I envision my life like. I found out the way I'd like to see myself in the future can be divided roughly about 5 areas:

Material/Tangible/Cars
Houses/Apartments
Business/Wealth
Relationships
Health/Fitness/Body
Lifestyle

I found photos of people, places and objects that inspire me to achieve these. Some photos like Tony Robbins Morning Routine Gary Vaynerchuk Speaking, and Kinobody flexing did really trigger something in me.

 

This is a very long journey but I know one thing for sure that  it is really hard to get what you want unless you clearly know what you want. Mental Clarity is the very first step but it sure is the most important one.

I highly recommend you to go ahead and create the album of your dreams together with me. My plan is to take these printed photos and hang it somewhere in my room where at least once a day I will be able to see them and thus they will remind me of my goals and allow me to stay focused on my vision. 

Take care and see you tomorrow!

Day 21: The most uplifting mindset shift I learned

I think most of our problems arise from us taking things in life too serious. Be it our job, personal relations, business, goals or anything else. The model of Success in our Subconscious mind is of someone who is super serious with a strict face and laser focus. However, the biggest success is happiness, the smile. The liberating feeling when you know you can achieve things Effortless.

You don’t need to be super busy all the time and live a miserable life without enjoying a second of it. On the contrary this kind of approach will only take you down. You become truly successful only and only if you realize that success can only be achieved by enjoying what you do. Enjoying what you do equals loving every second of your life. Therefore, Success = enjoying life.

The concept or the mindset I learned this week that I want to share with you opened a totally new perspective in front of me. Looking back at the things/problems that I faced or am facing right now with this new mindset liberates me from most of the pain and suffering that I have been attaching to them. It allows me to take things less serious and most of the things that I call problems just seem serious. Its like a paradigm shift that happens instantly once you observe the world with this new mindset. Einstein once said “We can not solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them”. This new approach exactly allows to do that. Shift from the old way of thinking to the new one.

I give all the credit for this post to a Youtuber called Aaron Daughty as he is the one who I learned it from. He says: “ The more you realize that life is a dream, the more dreamlike your life will become. When you become aware of that, what you then begin to do as you begin to dismantle the old beliefs, the old beliefs that appear, that makes things very hard and very rigid, and simply knowing that that things aren’t the way you think that they primarily were or are you already begin to dismantle the old ways of being.”

The realization of that “The reality that we experience in the world is only what we create in our minds.” Whatever you believe about yourself to be is true and it is your reality. Now on the contrary you can say that I’ve seen so many people thinking they are cool but are not cool how about that? That I call different realities intersecting and in that case whoever has a stronger belief in his or her reality will re-emphasize his or her way of reality onto another. Let me give you a better example. Lets say you are watching the a movie in the cinema. The main hero is being bullied at school for some reason and manages to defeat his bully at the end. There are 3 realities intersecting when this happens. There is a 1) reality of the main character of the movie that you are watching 2) the reality of someone who sees him as a looser and 3) the reality of the observer You. For the hero, it is hard to get away from his old beliefs despite the fact that he has all the skills he needs to become who he wants to become. 2) For the bully the reality is the guy in front of him is a looser unless he proves the opposite. However for you, the observer, everything is quite possible, you know that the main character can become anything and anyone as long as he or she believes in it.

Understand that life is nothing more but a game or a dream. Anything and everything can happen here and we are absolutely free to choose anything we want to do. Do not take it too seriously because at the end of the game nothing you do matters that much. It is absolutely your choice to make playing the game a very fun and enjoyable experience or to suffer as the main hero in your game goes through things you call difficulties. It is the ability to be able to observe yourself from aside to see your body do things you do during the day as a 3rd person that gives you the feeling of liberation from all the things we call “problems”. They don’t seem as serious now. If you realize that you live in computer game or a move and you as as an observer have the remote control to control the main character life can truly turn into the most fun and enjoyable experience. Its like watching the most sophisticated movie where you get to choose the actions of the main hero. Imagine the endless possibilities of what you can do with him. I bet you would be 10 times better Spider man or Superman the Batman than they are.

I will have to cut it off here because I have to finish some stuff at work now. I may do a video on this subject later. But do keep in mind you are watching a movie called your life and it is absolutely in your hands to do whatever you want to do wherever you want to go and whoever you want to become. Make this movie the most enjoyable experience of your life. Because that is possible also.

Day 20: Making Life interesting

Last couple of days have been filled with joyful, cheerful, and hopeful emotions. Maybe it was partly because of the birthday I celebrated on October 6. To be honest, I've never been a "birthday boy". It feels almost unusual to me when people around try to make me feel special just because I was born on that day. :) However, It sure is amazing to see your friends and family do their best to make you happy and feel good. Not even to mention the birthday discounts u get at the restaurants when u tell em its your birthday.

I think it is not just the birthday positivity that keeps rolling right now. I have learned an important lesson last week. It is first and foremost " To enjoy Life". Sounds simple right? Well, you can have all the money and fame in the world, if your life sucks and your state is not at its best I believe you are as good as Broke at that time.

The rule here is to "do things that you Enjoy" or "do the things the way you enjoy doing them". I mean when you have liberty to choose even your ordinary 9-5 can be as fun as going out with friends.

The problem with my approach was I was taking things too serious and obsessing over them. I was trying to solve many things as if they are a math problem. Lets say I had an objective of having a more fulfilled or interesting life. My usual approach would be like interesting life = meeting new people= attending interesting events. After I d go out find 10 events, line them for the entire week and make a to do list that I am supposed to attend them and if I didn't id feel bad. This obsession is so bad that it can turn what was supposed to be fun stuff into work.

However, I think I have found the missing link. It is to take things Slow. When you move slow, life moves slow with you as well. I remember I had a friend who once gave me the example of rabbit and tortoise. He said rabbits move fast, run, jump do everything else yet they can live only up to 10 years at best. Tortoises do nothing move very slow and stay present with every moment of their lives and they can live up to 350 years. (P.S. I don't fully agree with him)


Fulfillment is not always about how many events you attend or how many actions you take. One fulfilled action is capable to color your entire. Living the life is more important than chasing it...
Some conscious action is needed thou. You cant go home, sit doing nothing and say I am fully present, why my life doesn't get any more fun or why don't i feel those happy emotions. In order to Enjoy life more we gotta open the doors of the opportunities and then have fun with what it gives us.

Btw, I have started the Success diary recently and it is really helpful. Take a notebook and write down all the positive things that have happened to you. Make notice of the even smallest things that make you feel good.

I am really grateful to have meet all those people who add colors to my life. Until tomorrow! "_"

Day 19: I am back from a break. Practicing not to write to impress. Book review: "Mani, or ABCs of money" by Bodo Shefer

I haven't been posting for couple of days now. I had a long but interesting work trip to some regions of Azerbaijan. There was almost no chance to blog during that trip and I believe sometimes its better to be present and experience the moments fully instead of chasing life. Don't forget flow is what we are seeking with productivity not the pressure. With the state of Flow good things come to your life easy and effortless.

It was very helpful to take a break for few days.With the overload from my work and other things happening in my life it turned out that the things I was enjoying most were becoming almost what i started to resent. I am the type of the person who values his freedom more than anything. I dont like musts. I dont like too much predictability and with must write must workout and must vlog things were becoming too scripted in my life. After few days off, this morning I missed writing my thoughts naturally. 

I think that the biggest mistake any writer can make is write to impress his readers. Writer has to have the freedom to share his heart without any second thought. Writer has to have the ability to write what he want, what he feels rather than what he "needs" to write. It is more like a general rule that can be applied to anything in Life. "Nothing that you do to impress, can make you truly happy or Successful."

Today's book of the day is Bodo Shefers "Mani, or ABCs of money"

Its a children's story about a girl who comes from financially struggling family. She saves the life of a dog named Mani that turns out to have the ability to speak. The dog sees that the reason for her family's struggle is poor financial planning and inability to make financially good decisions. 

Here are some of my favorite principles explained by Mani:

1. First, figure out what money means to you 

2. Create a list of wishes. write 10 reasons why you want to be richer and choose 3 most important ones

3. Create an Album of dreams

4. High income doesn't solve all the financial problems

5. Don't get distracted. Nothing can distract you from your financial goal.

6. Create a diary of Success. It will shift your focus to become more confident and focused on the Achievement. 

7. Do what you love most and build your income stream on that

8. Learn to differentiate important tasks from urgent tasks.

9.  The rule of 72 hours. It implies that the longer you postpone something the less likely it is that you’ll actually do it. In other words, when you postpone something for longer than 72 hours, you usually found enough excuses to not do it. you should get in the mindset that you really ARE going to get this thing done (or at least to get started), and no later than within the next 72 hours, no matter what. If you can’t get started right away, put the deadline on your calendar in three days time.

10. Save money have cash available at hand

11. Welcome to the investment club 

12. Magic formula: learn to love money, be confident and work on what you love,make financially smart decisions,  dont buy things on impulses, make wise investments

It is absolutely a great read for people of any age. It can teach your kids things that most adults dont know. Have a great day and see you tomorrow. 

Day 18. No pressure day

Don't pressure yourself much. You are not supposed to write every day and not everything you write is supposed to be perfect.

Yesterday I spent most of my time filming and editing youtube video. I ve been busy with editing since this morning. I managed to film an hour long video and i think it demands at least 3 days work to finish the editing process.

I think it is not that productive to put so much pressure on yourself. In order for the creativity to flow your mind sometimes needs space to be able to think. If you constantly pure things to it to think and work about it never gets the chance to reveal the true genius.

So today is a no pressure day. I will do my tasks the way I want to do them. Even this blog post is not meant to give you a life changing lesson as I ve been trying before. It is not to be smart, educated or even include a fancy photo. I will be enjoying my life today. So do you...

See you tomorrow.

Day 17: Searching for my calling...

I had a nightmare last night. It felt like something was telling me that I did not belong to where I am right now and I have to do something about it. I was searching and searching, yet not able to find that calling. What is that thing that will lead me towards the direction I should go? What was that voice trying to tell me to do? It was a nightmare because it felt empty inside for a while even after I woke up. There was that intense feeling of worrying and fear that what if I die, will I be able to say that I had a full-filled life? doing what I truly love and passionate about?...

The thing is that, most of us live our lives always thinking that there will be a better tomorrow. One day I will do this, one day I will do that, one day I will be happy.. I am scared that those eternal one days will never end and I will wake up 60 years old still waiting for that one day but this time my retirement and I will regret that I have spent my youth by being simply too scared. 

This is not to say you should quit your job and chase after the dreams that don't exist. First, you have to spend enough time to figure out it actually is and start working on it. I am a proponent of rationalism above all. Taking extreme risks might not always end up like in movies. If you haven't figured out your dream yet chances are very high of you ending up wasting your time at home watching youtube videos and doing nothing productive until you run out all your savings. Instead I would recommend a more calculated approach, which is  to work on finding what you live and doing that with whatever time you have until the income from your passion exceeds your 9-5. 

Back to the nightmare... I felt like a search engine. Searching searching searching and not finding. Maybe it was a sign that I am keeping myself too busy with nonsense? Cmon GRE, Reading, GYM, and Blog post a day? What are they going to give me in the long run? Am I in the right track? I mean they are good habits and all. But it feels like they are no where close to the One thing that will give me the 80% of the results that I am looking for to build my future. I have to find that one thing...

Its highly possible that I am still under the effect of that nightmare. If so, just ignore this post and see you tomorrow ;)